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Jet Li’s work has always carried some degree of risk. Performing many of his own stunts, the martial arts star has fought opponents on shaky bamboo ladders (“Once Upon a Time in China”), leapt from tall buildings (“Romeo Must Die”) and dodged fireball explosions (“High Risk”).
But no amount of training could have prepared him for his real-life brushes with death.
Li was vacationing with his young family in the Maldives when tsunami waves triggered by the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake suddenly hit the beach. “I have my wife and two daughters in that moment,” he recalled, saying they all felt “very close to death.”
“The water is here,” he said, gesturing to his chin. “If it was a little bit higher, 20 inches, then I would have died.”
